Walking this morning in a garden which turns 100 in one week
started me thinking about what this great age means to us,
and I cannot but draw a parallel to this country’s most loved
hero.
Nelson Mandela, our much loved and deeply revered ‘father’,
at the grand age of 94 is battling age and is currently the
name on most lips, as he again struggles with a recurring
infection.
Why are most of us so reluctant to grapple with the inevitable?Mandela’s Gold Strelitzia.

Is it because we as a nation have failed him?
Did we listen but not hear Madiba’s words?
If we were able to honour this man, by living by his example
each and every one of us, and nurture and respect our fellow man
by encouraging growth and integrity,
in the same way as gardeners tend and nurture their seedlings
and saplings… then the essence of who the father of this nation
is would flourish and he would live on within us, in perpetuity and peace.

Not only would Kirstenbosch be one of the most successful
self-sustaining Botanical gardens in the world, it could also
be housed in one of the most magnificent countries universally.Forest fig

There are huge and enveloping trees growing in this garden,
planted 100 years ago, they too will leave, but generations to come
will be the richer for their lives, and although we will honour
their end and feel a deep sadness and sense of loss,
the soil will be well prepared
for the next flourish of abundant growth.Wild Almond.

Like this:

A few days short of mid-winter
and we have just had the most beautiful long weekend,
warm, clear skies and green green green!
There are puddles everywhere from tons of rain
and the air has been washed clean.
The mountain had multiple waterfalls cascading down it
and our dams are filling up so rapidly,
preparing us for the next hot summer.
This is the Cape Town that is so easy to fall head-over-heels in love with,
the city that constantly dishes out one wow moment after another.
With my camera as my constant companion I feel compelled to share my
visual candy with the rest of the world.
Because it needs to be shared.

Like this:

I have always made things, my mind thinks in 3D
and then the fun begins… how to make it?

This is how it has been all my life, I have no numeracy skills
but have always felt the prize for me was in the creating.
I could never be asked to be a book keeper, but would opt to make
the book instead, a 3D brain is so much more fun.
Imagine the distress that modern technology brings with it, when
something you believe is the product of your own
imagination is found to be lurking out there
in the cyber world and variations on my themes
are being made somewhere else in the world.
What is this?
Is it a universal melting pot of ideas that feeds
the creative souls and we all pounce on an idea at the same time?
Is it that creative souls think in such a similar way
that they hover around similar thoughts
on a universal time line?

Whatever this is it will not stop me in my tracks
or prevent me from finding new ideas, it will not instantly
turn me into a book keeper out of sheer need or frustration
but rather I will keep on idea-ing because it is so much
a part of who I am,
even if there is nothing new under the sun!